The Importance of Multicultural Programs
In recent years schools in Europe have developed multicultural education programs for several important reasons:
· to make learning more interesting and relevant to students' lives,
· to let students share information about their heritage,
· to teach them about the cultures of their classmates and other people who came to Europe from other countries,
· to encourage their respect for all cultures, and
· to empower particular cultural groups.
Some educators, however, are opposed to multicultural education, because they believe that it may divide students along racial and cultural lines, rather than unite them as Europeans; that it may promote tolerance of behavior that they condemn; and that it might promote the benefits of other cultures at the expense of pride in Europe
Despite disagreement about the value of multicultural education, schools are putting some multicultural learning into the curricula they already use
Types of Multicultural Education Programs
There are three basic kinds of multicultural education programmes, each with a different focus, and schools may offer one or all of them.
Programmes Focusing on Information
These programs, the most common type of multicultural education, teach about different cultural groups by adding a few short readings to the standard curriculum or by holding a few in-class celebrations of cultural heroes and holidays. More in-depth programmes include many multicultural materials and ideas.
The fullest programmes totally change the standard curriculum by adding multicultural information and many different viewpoints into all school subjects. Examples of these programmes are black, ethnic, or women's studies. In some cases, a multicultural program changes the focus of the entire school. Independent Afrocentric schools are examples of such complete programs. Some schools also have single-gender classrooms where girls are taught away from the distractions of a mixed-gender setting.
Programmes Focusing on How Students Learn
Many multicultural education programmes also try to raise the school achievement of culturally or linguistically different students, often minority students. These programmes, which sometimes also put multicultural information into the curriculum, can take many forms. Some teach about the students' backgrounds to increase their interest in learning. Some use teaching methods that have been shown to work well with students who have culturally-based learning styles. Some are bilingual or bicultural programs, such as language programmes built on the language and culture of immigrant students. Or they can be special math and science programs for minority or female students. Because the goal of these programmes is to help certain students learn as well and as much as students who are already high achievers, these programs can be viewed as compensatory; and, in fact, they can often be nearly the same as other compensatory programs which may not be multicultural in their focus.
Programmes Focusing on Social Issues
These social programmes try to improve schooling and the cultural and political climate in school. For example, they may try to increase racial and cultural tolerance. They may also try to desegregate schools and change the way they are organized so that all students are treated fairly and equally, and may try to increase all kinds of contact among the races. Programmes may encourage hiring minority teachers, teach students how to become more tolerant, and teach in a way that lets students work together to learn and solve problems ("cooperative learning"). This type of multicultural education emphasizes "human relations" in all its forms, and uses parts of other two programme types. To reduce racial tensions, curriculum can emphasize positive social contributions of ethnic and cultural groups, and use several different teaching methods. The programmes also can promote learning several languages ("multilingualism"). They can emphasize pluralism and cultural equality in European societies as a whole, not simply within the schools. They may ask students to use think critically about racism, sexism, and other aspects of European society that prevent all people from being treated equally; or to examine issues from a large number of viewpoints different from their own or from traditional European culture. Still others may use cooperative learning approaches and shared decision-making skills in order to prepare students to become socially-active citizens.
IMMIGRATION AS A CHALLENGE FOR SETTLEMENT POLICIES AND EDUCATION
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Design and implementation of the OE subprogramme
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1.The cooperation between tutor and students in Greece was planned under the central principle that students have an innated difficulty for the acquirement of a new knowledge but through time they can learn not only what tutor obliges but also :
a/ They could construct new knowledge never predicted in advance.
b / They could give initiatives and causes for further problematics and discussion leading finally to the construction of a new knowledge for the tutor too.
This retroactive or dialectic communication had been my motto and at the end of the oe/students programme the results of the evaluation will prove the extend of its success.
2.More analytically the aims of the OE/students programme are the following :
a/ To enable the twenty selected students to know the institutional and practical aspects of the Greek educational system relatively to topics concerning migrants and " returning" Greek students. These specific problems are related to xenophobia and social exclusion and are reported more and more often by the international educational literature in Europe. In practice these problems are enfronted everyday in the ordinary classroom and the institutional and legislative efforts of the state are never enough. Sensibilisation of tutors seems to be the only solution. Therefore, efforts have been oriented to this derection.
b/ To permit students to " crystallise" their views in the most clear way on the topics above, by expressing their opinions orally in the interviews and written in the questionnaire and the on-line discussions.
c/ To enable students to know each other in a better way in order to cooperate in the final study separated in five distinct groups.
d/ To create an atmosphere of respect and trust towards the " other's" opinions. By the these means we judge that students will be facilitated to express possible sentiments of superiority or inferiority that are latent in everybody but thoroughfully hidden behind our everyday social masks. To express these sentiments is considered as a first step for the comprehension of these same sentiments and this can be realised through the comments of the others. The final aim is the self-evaluation that is the last phase of the OE programme.
e/ To permit students to imagine their own possible behaviour in analogue cases and more specifically in relation with their group's topic.
f/ To learn how to communicate on-line with foreign students all working on the same general issue in a common language such as English.
g/ To learn how to understand mentalities of foreign people of their age and approximately same intertests and studies. Also, to learn how to synchronise their rhythms with the rhythms of the others.
h/ To know how to collaborate in small groups of four for a common aim.
i/ To learn how to " demistify " the others ( students, tutors ) and the " Other"
( European programme, National legislation and relative institutions, internet, multicultural education). When the " Other" is less unknown, it stops to be other and becomes more familiar.
3. The aims described as above have been selected also on ther basis of a second axis : according to which students have to feel that their views are respected as they are and that they have not to " adapt " them in the hypothetical ideal spirit of the multicultural education. These views are freely presented orally and written and are also transmitted through the Net to other receivers without any suspicion of censorship( and auto-censorship too) provided that insults and personal attacks have to be avoided. Practice proved that this scheme was operative in the most satisfactory way. It is rather early to evaluate the whole of the messages exchanged during this period of 100 days since November first and their impact on students' consciousness but that will be the final task of evaluation.
4/ A third axis of approach is that of the " definition through the otherness" . That means that personal attitudes as well as national identity or even personal identity questions, start from the others as points of reference because it has been proved that it is generally easier to speak and critisize others than ourselves. Under this point of view we discussed : a/ relations between USA and EU ( environmental policy, globalisation issues) b/ the other five countries national policies as regarding to the multicultural education and migration related to social exclusion of foreign workers.
5/ Last but not least axis is that which could enable a better approach and knowledge of the self via the communication desire with others. We consider the communication desire as a " vehicle" leading to the final goal of self understanding because for introvertive personalities the fear or the egoistic arrognance of distanciation from the "otherness" can lead to the adoption of xemophobic or superiority attitudes that are not reputated as the best for the self knowledge on question and the consequent self-evaluation. By these means it is expected that students in the OE programme will realise that some of their opinions are not really theirs but products of prejudices and stereotypes as propagated through social norms and mainly through the media. Also, it is expected that the views of the others will be respected in a satisfactory degree for their originality and afterwards as objects of good-will critique and comments. Stereotypes are usually the most easy to follow because they never demand evaluation or research of origins taking things as granted. After the French proverb " Critique is easy but Praxis is difficult " we consider the practical application of all these " self-discoveries" as the supreme aim and success of the programme and this practical application cannot be other than the views expressed on-line and in the second round of interviews.
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Lectures were organised on the following topics :
1/ Presentation of the topic Open Europe
2/ Presentation of the European site
3/Discussion on the theoretical aspects and the historical origins of the multicultural education in Europe supported by international literature.
4/Presentation of the five distinct topics dividing the group into five research teams.
5/ Reading of recent Press on minorities rights and immigrant workers rights.mainly in Greece with comparative aspects of European analogues.
6/Analysis of Greek educational Policy related to multicultural issues.
7/Analysis of recent visits of multicultural schools. Discussion on cases
/8/ Critical comments on the rhythm, style and content of the exchanged messages
9/ Explanation of some items of the questionnaires.
10/ Discussion on recent trends of xenophobia,racism and social exclusion in the Greek society focusing on the ambivalent role of the media with special reference to a recent
film and also two reportages shown on Greek television.
11/ Preparation of the five research teams for the final studies as final outcomes of
the whole OE/programme.
12/ General critique and guidance towards self-evaluation
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1/ The first target was relative to the knowledge of the actual Greek educational system concerning multicultural topics in theory and praxis. The relative question put to the students during the second interview was : " Under what perspectives have you taken the decision to participate to the present programme and to what extend your aims have been fulfilled ? " This question could be put possibly in the first choice but the aftermath is that it was well put in the second interview because the twenty students stated that when starting participation to the OE programme they did not have any idea about what multicultural education might mean, if it could be applied practically in Greece or in any other country and how this could be realised. They ignored the exact meaning of the contested terms " racism " and " xenophobia in education". They ignored the recent changement of the composition of the Greek school classes after the dramatic evasion of foreign workers and their families in the last 5 years. Finally after the realisation of the programme , they stated of learning more on these topics.
All of them judged the OE subprogramme positively. They stated that it offered to them information if not profound knowledge, since knowledge is a result of long term
personal efforts. However, these information were necessary. ( for example the philosophy hidden behind all the educational reforms since 1975 in Greece and the relative analytical programmes as applied in the schools).
2/ By these means , the central point on which all twenty students focused their attention was the crystallisation of their views relatively to the vast topic of education and more specifically the new needs that have been created since the massive entrance of foreign students -a completely impossible phenomenon to consider some ten years ago when the same students were still pupils of elementary education themselves- !. Also the need to educate new educators in the field of multicultural education and to enfront correctly the new data . All these topics are so evident and however so obscure as characteristically put by a student in his second interview:" how I could not think about all that before ? ". The point is that even if the views of the others are rejected by the subject , the very knowledge of these views is important and useful because it enables the subject to reconsider his/her initial personal ideas and to adopt some parts of the new ideas as communicated and circulated through the subprogramme. The students estimated that the right of selection of a new idea among the many ideas circulated was a great moral support and a pedagogical chance that they did not had in their regular universitarian courses. The so called ethnographic technique of
" participatory observation" was applied in practice since many visits to multicultural schools and observations of practical problems in situ permitted to the students to feel as observers of a system that operates in many cases by itself with no direct correspondence to official state legislations and circulars. Their selections were personal but orientated to general ideas as circulated through the correspondence with the other participant students of other countries. Emotional drives were also important since rational choices were not always the best paths to " comprehend " various manifestations of multicultural topics in the classroom.
3/ The grouping of the 20 students to 5 teams was made by them spontaneously under the criterium of common interests as developed during their first visits to the school classrooms and during the lectures. After Christmas vacations , students decided with whom to communicate and exchange more specific topics as related to the five items of the subprogramme. The final target was the preparation of the collective works. The differences among them cannot be attributed to age, race or to education level criteria since all of them are 19-25 years old of Greek nationality( except two foreign girls one Finnish and one Iranian who entered in the same group and collaborated harmonically with two other boys ) and students from 1th to 4th year. Consequently their only differences were cultural due to their families backrounds and cultural mentalities. The political criterium of classification progressist/conservative is of no use in ourdays and cannot be taken as serious. However, some differences in mentalities visavis phenomena such as racism and immigration could be interpreted as political. The benefit of this collective effort as already mentioned above in the (2) is that all of the students communicated with no prejudices (a negative phenomenon frequently observed among elder persons) to crystalise their new views even through difference. In conclusion, the degree of trust that these students manifestated among themselves was above the expected
The degree of mutual influences hence was a indisputable fact and can be attributed to the general openess of views and relative lack of stereotype conceptions that young people usually have.Finally their collective works were written by them in English (in four of the five groups) with not the slightest trace of my intervention as a tutor.
4/ The fourth task was to facilitate the 20 students to express freely their views as well as possible sentiments of superiority/inferiority or of fear /shyness towards the human factors met in the programme. The first step was to make clear to all participants that in this task they should be free to express whatever opinion with not any fear to be censored. Even banalised, crypto-racist and prejudicial views were accepted in the first steps to help them to " break the ice". Once this was accomplished, they felt more free to communicate. There were of course cases that some of them communicated much less than the average and sent fewer messages in the OE site. The reasons could be the personnal shyness and the idea that their studies
( mainly it happened to two chemists and two physicists) were not relative to the topics under discussion. To the relative questions adressed to them during the final interviews concerning their evaluation of their stereotypes and fears, the central point was that these initial fears as cultivated by mass media about the " criminal foreigner" were diminuated mainly due to the vivid experience of visiting and communicating with foreign pupils in the classroom. The idea that these young individuals face problems out of their responsability ( mainly language difficulties) helped students to evaluate their efforts and comprehend their reactions during courses. The stereotype of the criminal foreigner approaching the old stereotype of the scapegoat was decreased due to the indisputable fact that these people who bring their families in immigration cannot but be modest family oriented persons who wish rather to integrate to the host society than to commit illegal acts. The extreme case of this "change of views" was a girl who had the opinion that foreign pupils could not be accepted in the same classes as Greeks because she considered that they could create inhibitions and loss of time for the learning of Greeks. At the end of the programme however she recognised during the second interview that the same Greek students were rather facilitated themselves than inhibited by the use of new multicultural methods (in fact a variant of the Dekroly method).
In conclusion, racism as a social phenomenon with all its stereotypes, has many aspects and side effects such as the so called " social aspect" and in the last analysis the engagement with it is to study all the parameters of the "difference". Possible attributions of aggressivity to foreign pupils proved themselves as myths since the frequency of this aggressivity is rather lower for foreign pupils in the classroom than the average. Emotionally , most of the 20 students sympathised the immigrant pupils and most of them identified themselves with them, in other words they put to themselves the very simple question of " what should they have done themselves in their place ". This type of identification is a positive step towards the comprehension of the problems of the "other" and enables its subject to procceed to the next rational step of the participatory observation because it "clarifies the sentiments" ( especially it organises positive sentiments) and increases the self confidence that their next step will be an ethical act.
5/ Concerning the possible role that the 20 students could play themselves as tutors in a multicltural classroom, their answers to the relative question " how do you imagine your possible qualities to enfront the multicultural audience ? " were various. These answers were connected with the cases ( hypothetical or real )that they had reported. Special importance has been attributed to the respect of the cultural particularities of the immigrant pupils as well as the difficult task of inhibition of their isolation and marginalisation due to their linguistical difficulties ( communication cases). Concerning the lessons based on texts, the opinions were that the ideal tutor has to propagate an international culture and values system. For example agricultural or industrial activities in Greece as presented in the relative textbooks could be combined with analogue experiences in the countries of immigrants. This could be realised orally or in the homeworks of pupils. ( curriculum cases). A proposal concerning both possible communication , curriculum as well as also organisation is the quest of permiting /enabling/ facilitaning the foreign pupils to express their personal ideas and sentiments by their ways ( in and out of classroom). Athletic manifestations and artistical ceremonies ( theatrical , musical , pictorial) as well as educational visits, help pupils of different cultural backgrounds to cooperate and to overpass linguistical problems. This embroadens the initial role of the school as a typical learning machine based in a classroom. By these means even marginalised pupils cooperate and participate to common goals. ( organisation cases). In hypothetical cases of conflict , the students declared .that more than his/her possible intervention the tutor has rather to act as a preventive factor to avoid such troubles that disturb school function. This can be realised by the means of all the cases mentioned above. Finally as about the assessment cases , the most of the students estimated that the tutor has to be more lenient towards foreign pupils and to evaluate rather their effort than their final results. However, the final aim is to permit to the disadvanged pupil to correspond to all offered chances and to fill his/her gaps in order to integrate in the host society. ( under the consideration that the school class represents a microcosme of the broader society). Also , the goal is to permit to the foreigner to follow gradually all the educational demands in order to be evaluated in the secondary education
( lycaeum) under the same criteria as the other pupils.
Finally, all students "discovered" how difficult the task of a multicultural tutor might be and "denunciated" the slow rhythms by which the state organises the undergraduate studies of the related faculties. For example in the philosophical faculties of six universities of Greece ( compiling classics , history , modern literature, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, pedagogics and philosophy) there is not even one course on multicultural topics !!. Also , all of them with the exception of the department of pedagogics as well all the departments of the physico-mathematical faculties have not any relative course but moreover they don't provide obligatory attendances to common school classes, as they did 10 years ago !!! Only in the pre-elementary and elementary teachers faculties there exists such an ( optional) lesson. Two students who attend the third year of elementary education faculty declared that they started to consider post graduate studies on the topic of multicultural education as influenced by the OE programme but since such a post graduate specialisation does not still exists in Greece they face the possibility to go to England or France.
6/ Concerning the students impressions about their use of modern electronic technology of informatics and communication through internet ( computer mediated communication or CMC) , some of them had already a relative facility in this task having computers at home and speaking in on-line chatrooms , but the most of them simply " discovered" this means of communication and evaluated it as positive because otherwise not any exchange and feedback of views could be possible. A girl had personal doubts that she maintened to the end about the benefits of such an " impersonal" communication with virtual remoted interlocutors. Her hesitations are not meaningless since phenomena of social isolation and alienation have been reported mainly in the US about psychic disturbances and related syndromes to persons using intensely internet.However, this was not the case in the OE programme.
7/ The so much expected synchronisation with the other 5 participant countries students proved to be finally a much more difficult task as initially planned. The reasons of this relative failure are multiple. One can claim practical reasons due to technological problems or lack of accurate knowledge of informatics. I personally formated the view that internet is a mirror of its users and all sentiments,. ideas and passions of ordinary people cannot but pass through the new medium resulting to what the interlocutors really are. However, some of the Greek students did not underestimate the efforts that the foreign students made to communicate even if the rhythms of this communication could not be synchrone. One Greek student estimated that students of the other countries wanted from the very beginning to know the views of the Greek students and this in spite of their advanced theoretical background. By reading all their messages , he concluded that they face analogous problems in the classroom as in Greece and this fact raised his self-esteem and optimism that Greeks can do more to the direction of problem solving. Also, he concluded that communication and exchange of views is very important, if not the only means of resolving problems.
Conclusion : If a participant student gets feedback in his/her views or questions from other foreign students, the most probable is that this fact will raise his/her self confidence into proceeding to the painful task of multicultural education. There were of course many students declaring during their second interview that they never got answers or comments to their questions and they attributed this fact to the particular character of the topics under question ( racism and xenophobia) that are too much delicate for open discussion among people who never saw or knew each other. This certainly does not help to the extermination of stereotypes but is a natural consequence of postmodern mistrust and individualistic mentality as facilitated by current mass culture and consumer capitalism. Also, Greek students did not write messages during the lectures and for this reason their messages could not be " paquets" of thematic units. I could briefly characterize this sort of messages as independent.
8/ As mentioned already (3) Greek students had a satisfactory collaboration during lectures, visits to schools and grouping in five teams aiming to collective presentations of works. This fact reveals the factor of individualism as mentioned above (7).The role of questionnaires prepared by the senior researcher and myself special for every one of the five groups was constructive to the internal cohesion of each group. Also, I established very frequent meetings with the members of each group separately, aiming to help them towards their common aim.
9/ The last task was the most difficult but the general feeling was that it finished successfully. It was about the demystification of the " Other" whoever this might be( foreign immigrant pupil, tutor, foreign student of the participant to the programme countries). Also, as " Other" in its extended sense we can consider the state with its various legislations and relative institutions. Finally the new way of virtual communication supported by computers is a big " other " by the sense of a still unknown and unexplored system with possible negative and positive effects on human relations and psychology. If the temporal dimension of the OE programme was more extended , the results would be different and the views more integrated.
Greek students considered foreign universities and programmes of studies as more adequate for research and teaching on multicultural topics, but this fact could not explain why there still exist negative stereotypes concerning racism and xenophobia for these countries. So, the demystification was made by the sense that the " more civilised Europeans " face also serious problems in their countries due to the evasion of immigrants even if they are socially , politically and scientifically more equiped to enfront these problems. By these means the term " preparation" of students to teach to multicultural audiences takes a dramatic meaning because not a scientific supremacy can teach how to behave in a multicultural society. In other words social and cultural mentalities are products of long traditions and historical events leading to stereotypes and the role of the scientific research is to identify them but to change them is rather difficult. Furthermore, the social changes concerning the movements of different populations to the most developed countries is a recent social phenomenon and educational systems are not so easy to adapt to the new social needs. The case of Israel with a constantly installed " different" population ( Palestinians) claiming for independence , is much more delicate and cannot be resolved by the same means, hence the perplexity of Greek students towards this sociopolitical and cultural riddle.. But it has to be stated that communication with Israeli students was almost inexistant through the internet because students of this country were very rarely present in the OE site.
Teachers have been divided by students into two distinct categories : Those who have been educated even partially to the multicultural items and those who were simply "put" to teach mixted audiences with not any preparation at all..Both categories were characterised as positive concerning antiracist behaviour but the general feeling was that if the tutor cannot find out his/her own ways and solutions to everyday classroom problems not any progressive legislation or circular can help.The creation of motivation and interests to the foreign immigrant pupils is a task that had to be realised by tutors and not by the state. The proposals of the students are that the selective presentation of paralel cultural traits of the host and the hosted countries are the most adequate to help the approach between them. Last , there happened a demystification of the very idea of the multicultural education that seems to be a huge task in theory but practically can work only through the sincere will for communication with the "otherness" and the "different".
Practically speaking , the communication in a international programme such as the OE proved that various difficulties are a rule and their overpassing is an achievement of good will and collective effort and collaboration. Sometimes one can be taught through failures better than through successes only if one can realise the reasons of this failure and reconsider his/her initial principals and ideas. Demystification of fixed ideas or stereotypes has the sense that only communication in coordination with learning can overcome eternal prejudices fixed in the so called collective conscience of entire ethnic populations.
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Furthermore than the 9 targets described above, two consequences can be remarqued in the overall activities of the Greek group. The first is if the students succeeded after their estimations to proceed into new knowledge formation not necessarily predicted in advance. To that question, most of the participated students evaluated their contribution to the OE programme as a positive one for them. The benefits were a constant effort of improvement of some skills that were inexisting in the beginning and a constant quest for the development of interests relative to the multiculturalism. It is characteristic that in the first month students did not mention the education problems much because they wanted first to clarify in their minds the issue of multiculturality as an anthropological issue and the various reasons of such a crossroads of human contacts.It is characteristical that the issue of filoxenia ( hospitality) was put by Greek students in the site during the first month in their effort to trace the parameters of cultural differences among the other participant countries. The " experiment" was successful by the means that the lack of feedback to this item, persuaded them that hospitality is not a cultural trait of the other countries. This has something to explain to the xenophobic mentalities of these countries.
Freedom of expression and lack of any suspision of censorship was as mentioned before positive factors that motivated these efforts. Moreover, the constant notification of the needs and problems of the others created gradually to the students the feeling that multicultural education is not a particulat Greek problem but a rather international one. The knowledge of how to communicate with "others" supposed to have similar or analogous interests with you, make the individual more motivated to develop better his/her initial interests. The question of a girl student at the final act of presenting the collective works was characterestic ? " Did we succeed to solve the problem of racism and xenophobia in the schools ? " Of course the same student as well as the rest of the students concluded that this aim could not be possible even to imagine but all of them admitted that they traced this problem's true dimensions and they are now better equiped to face it in the near future. Maybe the final learning of this collective effort was that the students realised during its four months process that to learn by interest is by far much more important than to learn mechanically with no interest at all for the learned topic. For some of the students this realisation was made for the first time in their lives since they never had this stimulation during their school and university years !!
The initiatives taken by the students were constructive for the production of new problems and questions and laid myself to a reconsideration of many personal ideas and conceptions regarding multiculturality and relative education. The variety of ideas and impressions and the "thirst "for learning the " new reality" were characterestic. But the main question that was never answered by any body remains :"What the new reality is?"
One student declared/admitted characteristically that the programme "opened her mind " to all topics concerning the " others" not only the foreigners but generally the unknown persons.
The tutor observed comparing the attitudes of all students that they were by the first view contradictory or ambivalent because the same persons combined issues or values considered by our culture as " progressive" and in the same time demonstrated conservative or traditional attitudes. The same persons did not show any evidence of understanding this phenomenal contradiction. Finally the conclusion is that every human personality includes in se both elements of "progress" and "conservatism" or under terms of physical sciences " dynamic " and "static". This is a phenomenal contradiction but in reality it represents the Nature and must be accepted as such. For centuries various ideologies, stereotypes, prejudices and fanatisms could not admit this fact and distinguished humans and human deeds to black and white or under ethical terms to " good" and "bad ". It has to be realised that by the fruitful synthesis of the opposants is possible the communication among different humans otherwise all would be separated into two distinct categories of " whites" against " blacks".
The optimist consequence of all that is that by constant stimulation , one can get all stimuli necessary for the opposant elements of his/her inner self and use them according to his/her will and general culture and education. Since the tutor found herself identifying with many students during various phases of the programme, she concluded too that maybe she is more ambivalent than she considered herself to be after many years of school and university monolithic and solid education. Finally the tutor realised that the meaning of progress is the possibility that one has to select under personal criteria and values these elements of personality that could lead to a new view of the reality and the truth of social and natural phenomena. Under these considerations the tutor theorised her experience in the OE programme as a positive one for her own personality's development.
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Concerning the control group of the 20 students who were interviewed answering almost the same questions as the other students, the responders can be evaluated as persons who were already quite sensibilised to the topic otherwise they would not take part in it. It is characteristical that the majority of this group considered that Greek modern lifestyle and culture is highly dependent to the consumtion model as propaged by massive advertisement and relative media and that this tension will be increased in the near future imitating the western analogous lifestyles because it represents social success and glamour. However, most of the intrviewed expressed the optimistic view that Greek particularities focusing on language and tradition will succeed into resisting from this massive wave and that Hellenism will survive as a cultural entity. Structure of family and oral communication as a part of oral tradition are considered as the key points of this resistance. Most of these students knew nothing about the racism and xenophobia problems in the other countries except some stereotypes. Some of them who had attended special lessons of multicultural education in elementary and pre-elementary faculties, knew the recent developments of the Greek reality but for the most of them the dramatic change of the synthesis of the Greek school class was unknown and consequently they had not any idea about racism and xenophobia recent problems. Almost all of them responded to the question of possible proposal for the enfrontment of this problem that foreign pupils who are in Greek schools have to learn the soonest possible Greek language to assimilate with the Greeks and to be competitive in the school evaluation. Also, they remarqued that lessons of multicultural education are important in the faculties for helping future tutors to face the problem in praxis. Not any distinction between the terms of assimilation and integration was made. All consider that special school of reception for foreign pupils are not necessary because they could encourage the ghettoisation of these pupils. Even if they are put in ordinary schools , the role of tutors is crucial to demarginalise these pupils from their loneliness mainly attributed to the non knowledge of Greek language.They also considered that these pupils cannot have equal chances by definition with Greek pupils, so the tutors are obliged to increase the help towards them and to find many ways to motivate or encourage their efforts. To the crucial question concerning what they should do as hypothetical parents if their children reported that they had half of their schoolmates foreigners, their replies were various since the stereotype of the " dangerous foreigners" is still strong in current public opinion. Generally the 20 students of the control group are much less sure for their almost hypothetical responses than the 20 students of the OE programme.
==============SUBJECTS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF METHODS=========
Twenty OE students participated in the OE course in Greece. The questionnaire was
distributed to them as well to 80 more students of pedagogical institutions of primary
and secondary education. The 20 selected OE students were interviewed twice before and after the programme by semi -structured interviews admimistered to them. Also, they completed many questions as an aid for their selected topics while contributing to collective works divided in 5 groups of 4. The questionnaire addressed to the Greek students contained as in the similar cases of the other five countries, 53 questions distributed in three sections.Biographical information, assesed cognitive competence and was sub-divided into five sub-sections from which the most analytical was the last concerning confidence of the responders in knowledge of cultural diversity issuesas related to education. Finally the last section assessed attitudes.
The semi-structure interviews had as crucial aim to compare the trainees culture with thst of the others.Also their views regarding the settlement policy was examined. Their progress was compared after the end of the OE programme with their initial interviews whn they preserved " an innocent view" to the above topics. Also they were compared with a sample group of 20 other students who were not trained.
Further comparison of quantitative data coming from the questionnaire and the qualitative data coming from the interviews prove that :
1/ It is impossible to extract conclusions from pure statistical data when speaking about complicated topics such as attitudes toward cultural diversity. We need to compare qualitative data resulting from the interviews and to verify them with the quantitative statistics that can be used only as a control instrument.
2/ Some interviewees who cannot be testified as liers in the questionnaires, ccannot escape the " truth control" during the interviews for obvious reasons of the personal contact. In our research programme the questionnares were proposed by the Manchester University and had been tested to many cases but it's doubtful if they were tasted in countries with such different mentalities as Greece or Israel from the so called Anglosaxon cultural model. What is granted for West Europe is not to the same degree in the Southern Europe and this very fact consists one more proof of what cultural diversity might mean even in the level of researchers' cultural backgrounds.
COGNITIVE COMPETENCE ISSUES
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The basical research question : " Are the students willing and able to study critically ? "
can be approached only through interviews and qualitative analysis of responses of
a series of relative questions. Critical learning presuposes a concentration of the student to the problem and in our case the problem is one of the most crucial ones concerning the vision of the ( often unknown) Other. Racist and xenophobic trends are usually products of prejudice, fanatism and lack of profound knowledge concerning the very essence of this unknown Other.A knowledge of the cultural differences is a good tool for a better approach but this knowledge cannot be easily acquired from books. Social knowledge is missing from young students.and sometimes from tutors and researchers too. What is called sensibilisation to the relevant issues is not just an emotional but a cognitive process too. Maybe we cannot overcome the 'otherness' of different cultures but we could reach the understanding that one can be different and equal at the same time. Ιn our OE programme the degree of this type of cognitive sensibilisation can be " measured" qualititavely by the works produced by the
five distinct groups of students during the last month of their training.
To the crucial question if " students are engaged in self-reflective process of learning " the answer is in the process of communication. When we communicate, we become aware of 'otherness' - we experience subjects other than ourselves, we perceive them as different from ourselves and in turn define and conceptualize our 'self' through the perception of this otherness. Our project follows the similar path - being aware of the otherness that different cultures / social groups / ethnic groups carry for us. We intend to communicate with them, understand, and in the end return to our self and define it in the heterogeneous world. 'Other' is an important anthropological concept. Confrontation with the "other" (culture/subculture) and fieldwork among it is the ideological and methodological core of anthropology. Anthropology can be crudely defined as the discipline that studies the 'other'. 'Other' is an important concept in sociology too. In a heterogeneous society marginal groups and cultures (minorities, subcultures, etc.) are perceived as 'other' in relation to dominant / mainstream / central culture. Different marginal 'others' are created and defined by different discourses. Politically repugnant cultural 'others' can be as different groups as fundamentalists, gays, women, racial minorities, workers, etc. To speak about the so called " political correctness" is absurd because this correctness cannot but be defined by the dominant culture and its relevant ideology. Our students demonstrated through their internet communication with their homologues their self-reflecred level of learning of topics related to xenophobia and racism.
Summarizing, sensibilisation starts as an emotional process of undertaking the role of someone other ( self reflection)and terminates as cognitive process because the subject under question realises that there cannot be other rational issue than the result of his sensibilisation. In our group of twenty trainees, Albanians immigrant workers were compared often to the analogue Greek immigrants to US during the whole twentieth century. Then the stereotyped conception of " risky different Albanian others" changed to a more realistic conception of the same Albanians as " economic immigrants ".
ATTIITUDONAL FORMATION
-----------------------------------------
To the question of whether students know and evaluate their own values and norms after their personal criteria , or if they are greatly influenced by the dominant stereotypal criteria of their culture , results demonstrate that trainees had a confused idea of what a foreign culture might mean in the beginning , but courses , lectures, visits in the schools and dialogue succeeded to specify their opinions and to sensibilise them towards the direction of accepting the Others such as they are and not trying to assimilate them in Our system of cultural values in order to compare them with us. In other words the assimilation process was proved not to be functional while using all the domination power of the " superiors" against the " inferiors". Integration as a alternative strategy was proposed by most of the trainees in many cases when confronting problems of adaptation of immigrant students to theGreek or multicultural environment. If the dichotomy of self/other is a crucial one in theory or philosophical discourse, 'Other' is also an important concept in social psychology. Many schools of psychology stress that the main origin of self-image and self-esteem are the reactions of the others. Such a view dates back to Cooley's famous 'looking-glass theory of the self' according to which we look at the reaction of the others to find out what we are like. Greek trainees , entered many times into this logic of playing the role of the others or feeling the social position of the others.
It is thus clear that 'otherness' is not produced ex-nihilo. The references for the construction of the external world are the constitutive elements of the internal world, i.e. we use our own cultural concepts and categories to characterize the 'other'. However, 'otherness' is often from the very beginning loaded with negativity (marginal groups, subcultures, neighbours) or exoticism (perceiving the 'other' as holy, pure, natural like Rousseau perceived the tribal societies referring to them as 'noble savage'). Negativity and exoticism are both produced by and reproduce stereotypes, cliches, prejudices and a priori stigmatization of the 'other'. The aim of anthropology as well as our interactive program has been to highlight these prejudices and overcome them.
The question of perceiving the Other with no stereotypal norms and stigmata, is also a highly ethical question. The requested solution of integration is a moral commitment and pluralism is not the only means to succeed to this aim. Trainees agreed that a pluralistic society as organised mainly by the mass media is not a panacee because if pluralism is the right pf free expression and democratic dialogue, it's also a source of cacophony ( a side effect of polyphony meaning "bad voices" in Greek ) since the criteria of evaluation of speakers are not always clear.
Among all types on in a pluralist modern society, multicultural communicationor is a request of our times because of the rapid delocations of whole parts of etyhnic groups to other couintries in the search of better financial conditions.This type of communication with the 'other' follows three progresso-regressive stages that one might call confrontation, search for meaning and recognition. During the first stage, one's 'self' is confronted with the absolute 'other', whether person, culture or universe. It is impossible to describe the absolute 'other' as the condition of its absolute 'otherness' is that one knows abolutely nothing about its existence. Confrontation with this 'other' immediately leads to the second stage of communication - search for meaning - where the 'otherness' loses its absolute character. (the only absolute 'other' that retains its absoluteness being God.). Τhis was the case of the Greek trainees. Recognition comes the last and enables the confronting parts to have a spherical and practical knowledge and even competence of the situation and all the problems it might include
OPERATIVE COMPETENCE.
----------------------------------
To the question if trainees can become effective promoters of not only curricular goals but of a better communication in the school class, the four months experience during the OE courses and internet exchange of messages with their homologues from other European countries proved that undertanding leading to knowledge on multicultural issues can be a reality and not only a wish. Information is not enough because impersonal, trainees need to confront the practical problems in situ. Class assesment and organisation and resolution of conflicts between pupils, are also major tasks to understand and ameliorate and Greek trainees proved by their participation and contribution to the collective works, that they became aware of the crucial practical problems that a multicultural teacher faces in the school class. To identify conflicts among pupils and between pupils and the teacher was not an easy task. What the causes of the conflicts be ? What kinds of conflicts? Of course trainess had to take under consideration only those which seem to arise from problems of communication or culture. Thus, their special awareness on cultural diversity issues and their criteria of distinction had to be much elaborated to overcome resolve problems.
To aquire a meaningful operative competence and analogue teaching skills includes many innovative practices such as iinventing even modes of nonverbal communication. It was clear for the trainees from the very early moment of visiting schools that a physical space needed to be organized among pupils and between pupils and teacher. Αlso,identifying forms of verbal exchanges among pupils and between pupils and teacher. Are there meaningful differences in patterns of speaking according to the different cultural groups? Who talks about what with whom? These are some of the practical problems and questions raised in the multicultural class. Strategies to be adopted were taken under consideration but also another crucial theme was raised : If strategies of communication differ in and out of the classroom What is the relation between in-class communication and the pupils' performance? What can be the intimate relations of a teacher and a pupil manifesting a special difficulty?
Trainees do not consider that school success will solve all problems of multicultural students..( the recent example of an Albanian pupil of 15 being the first in the school and having rights to hold the Grek flague in the National parade prove this fact due to the all nation's dicotomy on the right of a foreigner to behave as a Greek even if typically has the right required from the Greek school regulation) Communication among students in the class might be proved a more important issue in the future than simple school success as attested by high marks. To the general question in the semi structured interviews whether racism consists a major problem in schools today, trainees were giving more negative answers than the non trainees group exactly because the public opinion in Greece manipulated greatly by mass media is not optimist and consider just the massive presence of foreign students in the Greek schools as a priori threat for Greek society.The same happened in the relative question 49 of the questionnaire.Trainees were more critical towards what racism might mean in Greek society today far from the mass media spectacularisation.
In conclusion, reflection about the very issue of what the meaning of the overall education might be, was arised among the twenty trainees of the Greek OE group. Facing culturally diverse problems in the class, helps teachers be better even in nornmal classes. Succesful management of the classroom (composition of work groups, discipline, etc) enables the teacher to develop a personal style of teaching greatly adapted to the specific needs of the class under question and to identify problems with specific teaching styles or disciplinary methods encountered by students of different cultural origins.
========================RESULTS=========================
A/ QUESTIONNAIRES
-----------------------------
The questionnaires were administred to the 20 students of the OE subprogramme
and to 80 more students of pedagogical fields who did not attend the subprogramme.
In the total number of 100 students we noted an over-representation of females (74) to males (26) and of first year students (36). Also the preelementary and primary education trainees were represented in an alnost equal degree than the secondary education traimees teachers ( 44 and 56 respectively). Only two out of hundred of the trainees described themselves as non-Greeks and 91% of them could speak English fluently , 32% French and 17% German.
1. Descriptive statistics concerning cognitive competence
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Knowledge of Cultural Diversity
------------------------------------
Data show that Greek trainees know foreign cultures quite well. They know what is the the major foreign ethnic group in Greece population of Greece fairly good ( 93 %),
but they know less about the percentage of population of Greece precising themselves as not Greeks. ( 47%) and even less they know the exact Greek population after the 1991 census (42%)
Boys are better informed than girls in the general total ( table 1) and the OE trainees are better informed in the two first questions concerning minorities and oreigners.(table 2). Paradoxally, the OE trainees know less than the control group the exact population of Greece. That proves that sensibilisation towards cultural diversity as it happens to the 20 OE trainees gives positive results concerning knowledge on national minorities.
Table 1 Table 2
----------------- -------------------------
gender Q 16 Q 17 Q 18 students Q 16 Q 17 Q 18
---------------------- --------------------- -------------------------------------
male 65,38%) 50% 96,15% OE trainees 40 % 65% 100%
female 33,78% 45,89% 91, 89% control group 42,5% 41,25% 91,25%
-------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
total 42% 47% 93% total 42% 47% 93%
Analysing further the data above, distinguishing boys and girls in the OE group ( Table 3 ) and also in the control group ( Table 4) we notice that the OE girls trainees are mainly responsible for the low mean score of the question 18 concerning the national population.
The general conclusion is that in both groups boys correspond much better in the first
question ( accurate knowledge of the national population ) slightly better in the third
( knowledge of the larger ethnic minority ) but the girls are almost equal in the second.
( knowledge of percentage of foreigners in the national population). These findings advocate the aspect that girls are not " good in calculating absolute numbers" but are much better in estimating analogies.
Table 3 Table 4
------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------
OE group Q 16 Q 17 Q 18 Control group Q 16 Q 17 Q 18
---------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------
boys 75% 62,5% 100% boys 61,1% 44,4% 94,4%
girls 16,6% 67,7 100% girls 37,1% 41,93% 90,32%
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------
total 40% 65% 100% total 42,5% 41,25% 91,25%
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use of modern digital communication ( internet)
------------------------------------------------
Concerning the questions related to the internet use, data show that Greek trainees know and use the new communication technologies not to a perfect degree. Also, they prefer to download informationfrom the www than to exchange e-mails with other persons( tutors or their comrades). Boys are better informed than girls in the general total ( table 5) and the OE trainees are better informed iin all three relative questions concerning use of e-mail for communication with tutors, with other students and search in the WWW for information. (table 6). That proves that knowledge towards the new communication media is increasing when students are getting involved personally in a research such as the OE programme. Also the increased rate of use of www compared to e-mails in all cases , proves that Greek students don'r find easily corresponders among their tutors, professors as with co students but the access to the www is more useful and attractive to them.
Table 5 Table 6
----------------- -------------------------
gender Q 13 Q 14 Q 15 students Q 13 Q 14 Q 15
---------------------- --------------------- -------------------------------------
male 15,38%) 26,92% 76,9% OE trainees 25 % 35% 65%
female 6,75% 17,56% 45,94% control group 5% 6,25 41,25%
-------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
total 9% 20% 54% total 9% 20% 54%
Analysing further the data above, distinguishing boys and girls in the OE group
(Table 7 ) and also in the control group ( Table 8) we notice that the OE girls trainees are mainly responsible for the high mean score of the first two questions concerning internet use but the OE boys correspond better in the third question concerning the search in the www.. Also the OE girls are better informed than the control group girls but this is not the case for the OE boys. In the contrary of the high mean scores of OE girls as compared top the OE boys, in the control group, girls are much less advanced than boys in all three questions.
The general conclusion of these 3 questions is that initially girls cannot afford or are not interested the same as boys in the internet communication but once they have a research topic on which they are sensibilised, they can overpass the boys' interests concerning the e-mails exchanges , but not also the boys' interest for the www information.
.
Table 7 Table 8
------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------
OE group Q 13 Q 14 Q 15 Control group Q 13 Q 14 Q 15
---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
boys 12,5% 25% 75% boys 16,66% 27,7% 77,7%
girls 33.3% 41,66 58,33% girls 1,6% 12,9% 43,54%
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------
total 25% 35% 65% total 5% 16,25% 51,25%
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Knowledge on Multicultural Education , practices abroad and aquaintances with foreigners
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concerning the questions related to the courses attended relative to cultural diversity,
labour abroad and co-labour or games with foreigners,data show that much more students have been socialised with foreigners in Greece than abroad. Boys are in a better stand than girls in the general total ( table 9) and the OE trainees are better in all three relative questions and especially in the question 11 ( living abroad).(table 10). That proves that knowledge aquired from common life , work or studying abroad was better in the OE trainees than in the other students and maybe this could help them in further sensibilisation after their return in matters concerning the " vision of the others".
Table 9 Table 10
----------------- -------------------------
gender Q 10 Q 11 Q 12 students Q 10 Q 11 Q 12
---------------------- --------------------- -------------------------------------
male 19,2%) 23,1% 84,4% OE trainees 15 % 40% 80%
female 12,1% 16,2% 68,9% control group 13,75% 12,5% 1,25% ------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
total 14% 18% 73% total 14% 18% 73%
Analysing further the data above, distinguishing boys and girls in the OE group ( Table 11) and also in the control group ( Table 12) we notice that the OE girls trainees are mainly responsible for the low mean score of the question 13 concerning the courses attended .Their differences with the OE boys are not important in the other two questions.(especially in the question 14 OE girls achieve slightly better mean scores). In the control group girls are slightly better in the first question and slightly worst in the next two questions.
The general conclusion is that it happened that in the OE group , girls were not qualified by any courses to topics related to cultural diversity but they were better in the control group. This fact however, did not inhibit them to develop sensibilisation through the OE programme as further analyses and interviews prove.
.
Table 11 Table 12
----------------- -------------------------
OE group Q 13 Q 14 Q 15 Control group Q 13 Q 14 Q 15
---------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------
boys 37,5% 37,5% 87,5% boys 11,1% 16,6% 83.33%
girls 0% 41,66 75% girls 14,5% 11,16% 67,67%
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------
total 15% 40% 80% total 13,75% 12,5% 71,25%
=======================================================================Further examination of the first 20 questions using Statistical Programme supported by computer, revealed that most of the 20 variables have relatively small statistical deviance ( S.D.)and rather satisfactory coefficient of correlation among extracting factors. Comparing the the relative low scores of the table 13 with the relative high scores of the table 14, we conclude that the variables demonstrating a high degree of correlation are VAR 5 ( age of the trainees) and 1( name of the country ) , 3( teacher group) and 4 ( gender). Variables 16 and 17 demonstrate the lowest scores of extraction.
Variables 1-20
-----------------------------------
table 13 table 14
Descriptive Statistics Communalities
N=100 Mean S.D N=100 Initial Extraction
VAR1 3,97 ,30 VAR1 1,000 ,743
VAR2 1,90 ,82 VAR2 1,000 ,763
VAR3 1,55 ,50 VAR3 1,000 ,737
VAR4 1,74 ,44 VAR4 1,000 ,740
VAR5 1,07 ,26 VAR5 1,000 ,801
VAR6 8,76 1,37 VAR6 1,000 ,824
VAR7 1,03 ,17 VAR7 1,000 ,515
VAR8 2,49 ,73 VAR8 1,000 ,574
VAR9 1,18 ,89 VAR9 1,000 ,563
VAR10 ,14 ,35 VAR10 1,000 ,561
VAR11 1,80 3,41* VAR11 1,000 ,681
VAR12 1,09 1,68 VAR12 1,000 ,681
VAR13 ,27 1,29 VAR13 1,000 ,941
VAR14 ,47 1,40 VAR14 1,000 ,924
VAR15 ,84 1,37 VAR15 1,000 ,925
VAR16 ,41 ,49 VAR16 1,000 ,492
VAR17 ,74 1,54 VAR17 1,000 ,664
VAR18 ,93 ,26 VAR18 1,000 ,477
VAR19 8,91 ,90 VAR19 1,000 ,630
VAR20 8,91 ,90 VAR20 1,000 ,759
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Barlett's test is giving a highly satisfactory measure of sampling adequacy ( table 15 )
In the table 16 is studied the percentage of variance for 8 initial factors by the extraction
sums of squared loadings as well as by the rotation sums of squared loadings. The cumulative variance of these 8 factors is summed up to 69,976% of the total. These 8 factors are studied analytically in the table 17 ( a rotated component matrix ) and the higher scores are isolated for every variant to define the statistical important correlation. Thus, the questions 13, 14, 15 ( all refering to the internet use) are grouped in the first factor , the questions 5 ( age) and 6 ( qualifications) to the second factor, the questions 17( percentage of the main ethnic group) and 20( knowledge of law) to the third factor, the question 10 to the fourth and questions 11 and 12 ( all 10, 11 and 12 refered to the multiculturalism)to the fifth factors, question 9 ( percentage of ethnic minorities in the school) to the sixth factor, question 3 ( teacher group) to the seventh factor and finally question 19 ( law) to the eight factor.
table 15
----------------
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0,59
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 664,399
df 190
Sig 0,000
table 16
-------------------
Total Variance Explained
ExtractionMethod:Principal Component Analysis.Rotation Method:Varimax with Kaiser Normalization Initial Extraction Rotation Sums
Eigenvalues Sums of Squared of Squared Loadings
Loadings
Var Total % of Varianc Cumulative%Total % of Variance Cumulative%Total%of Variance Cumulative%
1 2,821 14,106 14,106 2,821 14,106 14,106 2,787 2,427 13,936
12,137 26,244 2,427 12,137 26,244 1,852 9,260 23,196
3 2,069 10,347 36,590 2,069 10,347 36,590 1,826 9,130 32,326
4 1,510 7,549 44,139 1,510 7,549 44,139 1,730 8,651 40,977
5 1,474 7,368 51,507 1,474 7,368 51,507 1,587 7,934 48,911
6 1,329 6,647 58,154 1,329 6,647 58,154 1,430 7,152 56,063
7 1,214 6,072 64,226 1,214 6,072 64,226 1,401 7,006 69,069
8 1,150 5,750 69,976 1,150 5,750 69,976 1,381 6,907 69,976
9 ,906 4,530 74,506
10 ,866 4,330 78,836
11 ,807 4,036 82,872
12 ,732 3,662 86,534
13 ,596 2,979 89,513
14 ,536 2,682 92,195
15 ,466 2,331 94,527
16 ,373 1,865 96,391
17 ,331 1,656 98,047
18 ,228 1,139 99,186
19 ,103 ,513 99,699
20 6,011 10-2 ,301 100,000
table 17
---------------
Rotated (of 8) Component Matrix
Component
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
VAR1 1,688E-02 -5,893E-02 -1,448E-02 ,149 -3,813E-02 ,839 -8,085E-02 6,731E-02
VAR2 -1,903E-03 -,158 9,037E-02 -,796 -3,703E-02 -,250 -5,214E-02 -,173
VAR3 -,107 6,977E-02 5,446E-03 7,334E -026,551E-02 9,540E-02 -,796 ,262
VAR4 -3,307E-02 -,217 -,372 ,355 -,488 -7,802E-02 ,425 -4,808E-02
VAR5 -2,590E-02 -,796 ,375 -,141 -1,852E -02 2,853E-02 -6,744E-02 1,651E-02
VAR6 1,544E-02 ,881 8,174E-02 ,185 -3,222E-02 -5,255E-02 -2,410E-02 4,481E-02
VAR7 -9,174E-02 ,102 2,269E-02 2,698E-03 ,101 7,674E-02 ,666 ,190
VAR8 3,050E-02 ,329 -4,347E-02 ,233 -5,936E-02 ,200 -,190 ,573
VAR9 -4,097E-02 -5,935E-03 -7,710E-02 ,152 -9,634E-02 -,72 0 -6,296E-02 -7,041E-03
VAR10 -4,713E-02 -,122 -,115 -,703 2,791E-02 ,105 ,143 -6,784E-02
VAR11 -6,378E-02 ,128 -3,664E-02 ,148 ,788 8,453E-02 9,435E-02 -2,782E-02
VAR12 1,717E-03 -,409 -9,226E-02 1,856E-02 ,705 -4,471E-02 -6,253E-02 -4,783E-02
VAR13 ,962 6,109E-04 -2,253E-02 6,972E-02 -7,021E-02 7,847E-03 6,809E-02 7,586E-03
VAR14 ,956 7,023E-02 -5,852E-02 -3,355E-03 -1,771E-02 4,341E-02 1,298E-03 -9,722E-03
VAR15 ,955 -2,946E-02 5,619E-02 -2,586E-02 2,684E-02 2,032E-02 -7,851E-02 -1,267E-02
VAR16 2,732E-02 3,706E-02 ,301 -6,693E-02 ,302 ,136 ,158 ,510
VAR17 -4,398E-02 -2,432E-02 ,803 8,535E-02 3,374E-02 5,798E-02 -7,011E-02 8,279E-03
VAR18 -1,909E-02 9,634E-02 ,138 ,524 ,281 -,170 9,670E-02 ,237
VAR19 3,527E-02 ,105 ,120 3,242E-02 ,115 8,108E-02 1,431E-02 -,763
VAR20 -2,103E-02 ,127 -,851 -4,330E-02 9,238E-02 1,465E-02 -7,510E-02 5,126E-02
=======================================================================
2. Attitudonal formation statistical analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------
a/ Confidence variables 21-35
Coming to the second category of questions ( variables 21-35) relative to the confidence degree of the trainees, we notice that Barlett's test score is highly satisfactory, ( table 18)
and the lowest score for extraction is manifested in the variant 22 ( knowledge on national
legislation for equality and multiculturalism). Also, all statistical deviations (S.D.) scores
are under 1 ( tables 19-20). Consequently the three factors deriving from this statistical model are demonstrated in the table 22 where the first factor is by far the most important one loading from 8 variables ( 21,22,24,26,28,31,34,35) and having a high eigenvalue of 4,41 and a very high percentage of variance 29,39% ( table 21). The other two factors have modest eigen values and percentages of variance. The second factor is loading from the variables 23,25,27,29,30 and the third factor only from the variables 33 and 33. All three factors demonstrate a cumulative percentage of variance 46,90% ( table 21).After these findings , we can name the first factor composed of 8 variables as cited above as General confidence in cooperation, the second factor composed from 5 variants as Special confidence in multicultural cooperation and the third factor composed only by two variants . as Confidence in antiracist education. Finally,as related to the Alpha reliability Cronbach test, the scores of all the three factors( 0,75 0,67 and 0,61 espectively ) convince us about their major importance . ( table 22)
table18
-------------------
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kayser-Meyer-Olkin
measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0,737
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 344,621
df 105
Sig. 0,000
========================================================================
tables 19-20
-------------------------
Means and Standard Deviations
Communalities Casewise deletion of MD , N=91
Initial Extraction Means Std.Devs
VAR21 1,000 ,522 VAR21 1,18 ,72
VAR22 1,000 ,295* VAR22 ,53 ,66
VAR23 1,000 ,577 VAR23 ,84 ,65
VAR24 1,000 ,505 VAR24 1,11 ,92
VAR25 1,000 ,605 VAR25 ,49 ,72
VAR26 1,000 ,571 VAR26 1,42 ,97
VAR27 1,000 ,467 VAR27 ,99 ,78
VAR28 1,000 ,588 VAR28 1,66 ,87
VAR29 1,000 ,408 VAR29 ,88 ,87
VAR30 1,000 ,713 VAR30 ,64 ,78
VAR31 1,000 ,472 VAR31 1,51 ,89
VAR32 1,000 ,628 VAR32 ,86 ,86
VAR33 1,000 ,686 VAR33 1,19 ,86
VAR34 1,000 ,570 VAR34 ,99 ,94
VAR35 1,000 ,622 VAR35 1,54 ,96
table 21
--------------
Total Variance Explained
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation: Varimax Row
Eigenvalue % total Variance Cumulative Eigenvalue Cumulative %
1 4,41 29,39 4,41 29,39
2 1,38 9,19 5,79 38,58
3 1,25 8,32 7,04 46,90
table 22
-------------------
Factor Loadings
Clusters of loadings are marked
Factor1 Factor2 Factor3
VAR21 0.39 0.28 0.37
VAR22 0.41 0.33 -0.08
VAR23 0.08 0.61 0.13
VAR24 0.53 0.37 0.06
VAR25 0.06 0.76 0.12
VAR26 0.50 0.28 0.28
VAR27 0.06 0.60 0.29
VAR28 0.73 -0.03 -0.07
VAR29 0.18 0.54 0.17
VAR30 0.35 0.55 0.07
VAR31 0.48 -0.16 0.47
VAR32 -0.01 0.19 0.72
VAR33 0.09 0.15 0.80
VAR34 0.67 0.29 0.19
VAR35 0.55 0.06 0.47
a 0.75 0.67 0.61
===============================================
b/ Attitudonal variables 36-53
Refering to the third category of questions ( related to attitudes of trainees), we notice
that the Barlett's test score is satisfactory but lower than the analogue of the variables group 21-35. ( table 23). However, Chi-Square score is higher than its analogue of the confidence variables.Here, the lowest score for extraction is manifested in the variant 38 (schools ought to support minority languages) but all scores are relatively high.. Also, all statistical deviations (S.D.) scores are relatively low , with the highest ( negative) score corresponding to the variable 44 ( if communities want to retain their languages and culture). ( tables 24-25). Consequently, the four factors deriving from this statistical model are demonstrated in the table 27 where the first factor is by far the most important one loading from 8 variables ( 36,37,41,48,50,51,53) and having a high eigenvalue of 4,15 and a very high percentage of variance 23,03% ( table 26). The other three factors have modest eigen values and also percentages of variance. The second factor is loading from the variables 38,42,43,45 ,the third factor from the variables 39,40,44 and 47 and the forth factor only from the variables 46 and 49. All four factors demonstrate a cumulative percentage of variance 50,35% ( table 26)( higher than its analogue of the variants 21-35) After these findings , we can name the first factor composed of the 8 variables cited above , as Recognising racism as a parameter of multuculturalism. The second factor composed of 4 variables can be named School and society balanced rights and duties. The third factor as composed also from 4 variables can be named Multicultural awareness and the fourth factor composed only by two factor can be named Ambivalence of racism. As related to the Alpha reliability Cronbach test, the scores of the first two factors( 0,79 and 0,44 respectively)convince us about their major importance as compared to the two last. ( table 27)
table 23
--------------------
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0,601
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 399,771
df 171
Sig. 0,000
table24-25
-----------------
Means and Standard Deviations
Communalities Casewise deletion of MD , N=75
Initial Extraction Means Std.Devs
VAR36 1,000 ,749 VAR36 4,20 ,68
VAR37 1,000 ,712 VAR37 3,69 ,91
VAR38 1,000 ,514 VAR38 3,60 ,97
VAR39 1,000 ,631 VAR39 3,44 1,15
VAR40 1,000 ,699 VAR40 3,95 ,96
VAR41 1,000 ,563 VAR41 4,13 ,74
VAR42 1,000 ,730 VAR42 4,07 1,17
VAR43 1,000 ,691 VAR43 3,43 1,21
VAR44 1,000 ,613 VAR44 3,28 1,36
VAR45 1,000 ,759 VAR45 2,71 ,97
VAR46 1,000 ,830 VAR46 2,40 1,04
VAR47 1,000 ,593 VAR47 3,77 1,07
VAR48 1,000 ,601 VAR48 3,41 1,09
VAR49 1,000 ,784 VAR49 3,03 1,14
VAR50 1,000 ,778 VAR50 4,59 ,64
VAR51 1,000 ,735 VAR51 4,20 ,82
VAR52 1,000 ,577 VAR52 3,59 ,96
VAR53 1,000 ,633 VAR53 4,01 ,89
table 26
-----------------
Total Variance Explained
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation: Varimax Row
Eigenvalue % total Variance Cumulative Eigenvalue Cumulative %
1 4,15 23,03 4,15 23,03
2 1,88 10,47 6,03 33,50
3 1,55 8,62 7,58 42,12
4 1,48 8,23 9,06 50,35
table 27
---------------------
Factor Loadings
Clusters of loadings are marked
F1 F 2 F 3 F4
VAR36 0,56 -0,21 0,23 0,06
VAR37 0,61 -0,20 0,33 0,14
VAR38 0,28 0,50 0,04 -0,17
VAR39 0,02 -0,20 0,68 0,37
VAR40 0,03 0,02 0,67 -0,22
VAR41 0,44 0,40 -0,20 0,03
VAR42 -0,03 0,81 0,15 0,13
VAR43 -0,12 0,49 -0,05 -0,14
VAR44 0,21 0,12 0,64 0,07
VAR45 -0,04 0,46 0,07 0,10
VAR46 -0,09 0,11 0,03 0,87
VAR47 0,32 0,25 0,58 -0,17
VAR48 0,57 0,20 0,39 0,06
VAR49 0,23 -0,07 -0,07 0,69
VAR50 0,68 0,37 0,13 -0,01
VAR51 0,72 0,10 0,24 0,01
VAR52 0,62 -0,14 -0,08 0,00
VAR53 0,76 0,02 0,05 0,03
a 0.79 0.44 0 -0.65
================================================
Confidence Variables 21-35
Concerning the t-test as applied on the discrimination of trainees/non trainees ( var 54)
and on gender ( var 4) we have to notice interesting statistical correlations in the category of confidence variables 21-35. Analytically, the variables 25 ( strategies for cultural and racial bias) 31( importance of parental and community involvement on education ) and 33 ( working with teachers parents and other as educational team) present an important difference in their mean scores between the two categories ( the trainees demonstrating higher scores) and also concerning p < 0,05.( table 28) The differences between boys and girls have another orientation in the confidence related questions. Here, the most important divergences concern the variables 22 and 35. In the first ( knowledge of national legislation related to equality and multiculturalism) girls have a much higher mean score but in the second ( ethical and professional responsabilities) boys have a better confidence on their knowledge. P is approaching the 0,05 limit in these two variables ( 0,09 and 0.08 respectively).( table 29).
table 28
-------------
Grouping: VAR54 (trainees and non trainees)
Group 1: G_1:1
Group 2: G_2:2
(eurmis.sta)
Mean Mean Valid N Valid N Std.Dev. Std.Dev.F-ratio p
G_1:1 G_2:2 t-value df p G_1:1 G_2:2 G_1:1 G_2:2 var var
VAR21 1,37 1,09 1,52 97 0,13 19 80 0,83 0,70 1,42 0,29
VAR22 0,63 0,52 0,66 98 0,51 19 81 0,68 0,67 1,03 0,87
VAR23 0,79 0,84 -0,30 98 0,77 19 81 0,63 0,66 1,10 0,87
VAR24 1,17 1,10 0,26 95 0,79 18 79 0,92 0,96 1,07 0,92
VAR25 0,82 0,41 2,17 95 0,03 17 80 0,64 0,72 1,30 0,58
VAR26 1,32 1,46 -0,55 96 0,58 19 79 0,89 1,01 1,30 0,54
VAR27 0,95 1,03 -0,38 96 0,71 19 79 0,78 0,82 1,10 0,87
VAR28 1,63 1,66 -0,12 96 0,91 19 79 0,90 0,89 1,01 0,91
VAR29 0,65 0,96 -1,36 94 0,18 17 79 0,70 0,90 1,64 0,27
VAR30 0,56 0,67 -0,55 94 0,58 18 78 0,70 0,78 1,24 0,64
VAR31 2,06 1,41 2,82 95 0,01 18 79 0,87 0,88 1,03 1,00
VAR32 1,00 0,82 0,80 93 0,42 18 77 1,08 0,81 1,81 0,08
VAR33 1,58 1,14 2,03 97 0,04 19 80 0,96 0,82 1,36 0,35
VAR34 1,11 0,96 0,60 96 0,55 19 79 0,94 0,94 1,01 1,00
VAR35 1,67 1,53 0,55 95 0,58 18 79 0,97 0,93 1,08 0,77
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
table29
------------------
Grouping: VAR4 (gender)
Group 1: G_1:1
Group 2: G_2:2
(eurmis.sta)
Mean Mean Valid N Valid N Std.Dev. Std.Dev. F-ratio p
G_1:1 G_2:2 t-value df p G_1:1 G_2:2 G_1:1 G_2:2 var var
VAR21 1,31 1,08 1,36 97 0,18 26 73 0,84 0,68 1,51 0,18
VAR22 0,35 0,61 -1,72 98 0,09 26 74 0,56 0,70 1,55 0,22
VAR23 0,88 0,81 0,49 98 0,62 26 74 0,82 0,59 1,92 0,03
VAR24 1,08 1,13 -0,23 95 0,82 26 71 1,02 0,92 1,21 0,53
VAR25 0,64 0,43 1,25 95 0,21 25 72 0,81 0,69 1,39 0,29
VAR26 1,52 1,40 0,54 96 0,59 25 73 0,96 1,00 1,07 0,88
VAR27 1,20 0,95 1,37 96 0,17 25 73 0,91 0,76 1,44 0,24
VAR28 1,64 1,66 -0,08 96 0,93 25 73 0,95 0,87 1,20 0,54
VAR29 1,00 0,87 0,62 94 0,53 25 71 1,08 0,79 1,86 0,05
VAR30 0,80 0,59 1,17 94 0,24 25 71 0,82 0,75 1,19 0,56
VAR31 1,67 1,48 0,87 95 0,39 24 73 0,82 0,94 1,34 0,44
VAR32 1,08 0,77 1,53 93 0,13 24 71 1,14 0,74 2,36 0,01
VAR33 1,28 1,20 0,39 97 0,70 25 74 0,98 0,83 1,40 0,27
VAR34 1,08 0,96 0,56 96 0,58 25 73 1,00 0,92 1,17 0,59
VAR35 1,84 1,46 1,78 95 0,08 25 72 0,90 0,93 1,08 0,86
===========================================================
Attitudonal Variables 36-53
Concerning the t-test as applied on the discrimination of trainees/non trainees ( var 54)
and on gender ( var 4) we don't notice the same interesting findings in the category of attitudonal variables 36-53 as in the confidence category. Analytically, the variables
40 and 49 present p 0,07 and 0,09 respectively, approaching the limit of 0,05.( table 30 )
Also, in both these questions the trainees "seem" to have lower score than the non trainees but the explication of this phenomenal paradox is that the trainees do not consider very important the success of immigrant students in the Greek language ( as their integration to the social environment) a delicate fact that cannot be perceived by the non trainees expressing the common opinion of Greek society tending to a cultural assimilation process. Also, the question 49 , if racism consists a major problem in schools today, is giving more positive answers o the non trainees group exactly because the public opinion in Greece manipulated greatly by mass media is not optimist and consider just the massive presence of foreign students in the Greek schools as a a priori threat for Greek society. Of course in the questionnaire exists the exactly opposite question ( 46) the answers on which are reversed in the two groups under comparison. .The differences between boys and girls, focus mainly on the first variable of this category ( 36, minority groups should be encouraged to retain their cultural particularities) followed by the var 38 ( p 0,08 ) and 44 ( p 0,11). In all these tree variables, girls demonstrate a higher mean score than boys. ( table 31).
table 30
-------------
Grouping: VAR54 (trainees and non trainees)
Group 1: G_1:1
Group 2: G_2:2
(eurmis.sta)
Mean Mean Valid N Valid N Std.Dev. Std.Dev. F-ratio p
G_1:1 G_2:2 t-value df p G_1:1 G_2:2 G_1:1 G_2:2 var var
VAR36 4,26 4,19 0,43 98 0,67 19 81 0,56 0,74 1,75 0,18
VAR37 3,53 3,65 -0,51 95 0,61 19 78 0,84 1,02 1,46 0,37
VAR38 3,89 3,62 1,09 97 0,28 18 81 0,90 0,97 1,16 0,76
VAR39 3,84 3,38 1,56 96 0,12 19 79 0,83 1,22 2,15 0,07
VAR40 3,58 4,03 -1,83 97 0,07 19 80 1,35 0,84 2,56 0,00
VAR41 4,41 4,10 1,57 92 0,12 17 77 0,51 0,77 2,31 0,06
VAR42 4,21 4,11 0,35 98 0,72 19 81 1,08 1,11 1,04 0,97
VAR43 3,74 3,33 1,35 97 0,18 19 80 1,10 1,22 1,24 0,63
VAR44 3,16 3,15 0,02 97 0,98 19 80 1,21 1,45 1,43 0,40
VAR45 2,81 2,68 0,49 85 0,63 16 71 0,83 1,04 1,55 0,34
VAR46 2,68 2,43 0,93 98 0,36 19 81 1,16 1,05 1,22 0,53
VAR47 3,89 3,68 0,76 96 0,45 19 79 1,05 1,10 1,11 0,84
VAR48 3,24 3,43 - ,66 94 0,51 17 79 1,03 1,12 1,17 0,76
VAR49 2,63 3,12 -1,72 98 0,09 19 81 1,01 1,14 1,28 0,57
VAR50 4,79 4,54 1,57 98 0,12 19 81 0,54 0,63 1,40 0,43
VAR51 4,16 4,23 -0,33 97 0,74 19 80 1,01 0,75 1,85 0,07
VAR52 3,59 3,58 0,03 89 0,98 17 74 1,06 0,94 1,29 0,45
VAR53 4,21 4,09 0,57 97 0,57 19 80 0,85 0,84 1,02 0,89
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
table 31
--------------
Grouping: VAR4 (gender)
Group 1: G_1:1
Group 2: G_2:2
(eurmis.sta)
Mean Mean Valid N Valid N Std.Dev. Std.Dev. F-ratio p
G_1:1 G_2:2 t-value df p G_1:1 G_2:2 G_1:1 G_2:2 var var
VAR36 3,96 4,28 -2,02 98 0,05 26 74 0,77 0,67 1,32 0,36
VAR37 3,52 3,67 -0,64 95 0,52 25 72 1,19 0,90 1,75 0,07
VAR38 3,38 3,77 -1,77 97 0,08 26 73 0,94 0,95 1,02 1,00
VAR39 3,28 3,53 -0,94 96 0,35 25 73 1,14 1,18 1,08 0,87
VAR40 4,04 3,91 0,60 97 0,55 25 74 1,14 0,91 1,56 0,15
VAR41 4,15 4,16 -0,05 92 0,96 26 68 0,78 0,73 1,17 0,60
VAR42 4,00 4,18 -0,70 98 0,49 26 74 1,10 1,10 1,01 1,00
VAR43 3,40 3,41 -0,02 97 0,98 25 74 1,38 1,15 1,46 0,22
VAR44 2,76 3,28 -1,63 97 0,11 25 74 1,42 1,38 1,06 0,81
VAR45 2,52 2,77 -1,00 85 0,32 23 64 1,12 0,96 1,38 0,32
VAR46 2,65 2,42 0,96 98 0,34 26 74 1,23 1,01 1,49 0,19
VAR47 3,64 3,75 -0,45 96 0,66 25 73 1,25 1,04 1,46 0,22
VAR48 3,24 3,45 -0,82 94 0,41 25 71 1,13 1,09 1,07 0,80
VAR49 2,85 3,09 -0,96 98 0,34 26 74 1,01 1,17 1,35 0,40
VAR50 4,62 4,58 0,24 98 0,81 26 74 0,70 0,60 1,36 0,31
VAR51 4,19 4,22 -0,15 97 0,88 26 73 0,85 0,79 1,17 0,60
VAR52 3,50 3,61 -0,49 89 0,62 24 67 0,98 0,95 1,05 0,84
VAR53 3,92 4,18 -1,33 97 0,19 26 73 0,93 0,81 1,35 0,33
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==========================================================
B / INTERVIEWS
----------------------
Concerning the 20 trainees, their origins were from Athens (15 ) and from country (3 ) but the origins of their parents were mainly from country except of the cases of two foreign students pre-elementary faculty of Education. These two persons ,one from the North ( Finland) and one from the East ( Iran) assure a pluralism of views.Also one person was born in Greece from mother of Hungarian origin. By these means three out of the twenty students ( 15%) had had a foreign langue as maternal. Also, their distribution related to the type of their studies is : 14 students attending theoretical studies ( 70%) and the rest 6 (30%) positive ( chemistry and physico-mathematics). Also, 14 of the students attend pedagogical faculties leading to the secondary education and 6 to the elementary or pre-elementary.
Results
----------
1. Students' attitudes towards cultural diversity
-----------------------------------------------------
In the beginning of the OE subprogramme Greek students had not many personal experiences of learning or teaching in a multicultural learning context. Thus, one common feature was their relative insecurity on all three dimensions of the competence: knowledge, attitudes and skills. It was natural that Greek students supposed that students in other countries know more and are more experienced than them in multicultural education. However, their motivation was high since while starting the project they hoped that they could develop :
1/ New perspectives and exchange of multicultural school experiences
2/ Personal contacts with people from different cultures
3/ Concrete models of appropriate material, methods, teaching strategies
4/A chance to learn how to use the Internet techology for a concrete goal.
All the Greek teacher trainees expressed their contribution to the multicultural policy of the country in both rounds of interviews. Cultural diversity was mostly considered as a moral and also social challenge. Hence, students emphasised the positive effects of cultural diversity on the Greek population, such as an increased multicultural sensibilisation in education and society and opportunities for learning from one another in the everyday co-existence. They insisted on the possibility of the Greek society to "catch the train " of the new era through the fruitful cooperation of native Greeks with the "interesting Others". In Greek language the term interest comes from the same suffix as different so there is a connotation that whoever is different might be for this reason interesting. Qualities of everyday life and different lifestyles were always welcome through various Greek historical periods since
" this place has been working for centuries as a croddroads of different cultures coming from the North , South, East and West. Central and West Europe, Asia Minor and Egypt have been sources of influences for the development of Greek culture since the time of Solon's first contact with Egypt. Herodote is characteristic case of the first ethnologist comparing different rituals and habits with the Greek analogues ". The Greek were very early convinced that their "ways" were not the only ones. During Hellenistic times a strong wave of "extravertive" cosmopolitanism was practiced for centuries in the greek speaking Orient and this amalgamation of differences permitted Bysantium to survive for 10 centuries. The hellenization of the " outcomers "once considered as barbarians because they could not speak Greek, was a major task and finally what we call Hellenism is the contribution to the World culture of whoever could express himself in the Greek language "
With such a cultural background ( repeated and overemphasised through the highly ethnocentric lesson of History as taught for 10 years in the National Education) the recent "evasion"of immigrant workers in Greece in the last decade of the twientieth century was not an outstanding phenomenon. Theoretically no one of the students opposed the growth of immigration and the only objection was the overpopulation of the two major urban centers of Athens and Salonica that were already overcrowded before the nineties by intense Greek internal migration and rural exodus starting from the fifties.
Οpinions regarding how Greeks enfront national minorities are unclear because most of the students are not aware on the existence of these minorities with the exception of the Turkish minority in Thrace ( they ignored that a considerable number of this minority group of 140.000 persons have migrated to the islands or to Athens). Usually national minorities are considered as points of reference for defining their own ethnic identity. Only two students claimed that they know about national minorities and this knowledge came from the media, 1 had personal experience because he lived in Thrace and he considered cohabitation as harmonious, 2 reported that Greek state is not doing its best for giving better conditions of life to the minoritarian population and one student felt uncofortable because the Turkish minority could become a national danger in the near future because of its geographical approximity to the Greek-Turkish borders. The real fact is that for reasons of national ideology the case of national minorities is never reported in the school books.
In conclusion, the 20 trainees are aware of their prejudices and ethnic stereotypes as transmiitted through the educational system but hope that the coming era of better
human communication and multicultural contacts will enable them to overpass these
standards. Also they are hopeful that education will change its views practically
because of the inavoidable " evasion" of foreigners in the country. No one expressed
a wish for separation or ghettoisation of the newcomers, in the contrary all are hopeful
that the dynamic hosmosis of native population with foreigners may be benefic for both.
This spirit of internationalisation higly promoted by the so called " globalisation" as
propagated by the media, takes rather the dimensions of a cultural phenomenon in the minds of the students representing the younger generation and not of the financial consequences of such a cohabitation. Youth are more optimist because idealists or romantics and their distanciation from the labour market permits them to theorize multiculturalism as a new cosmopolitanism instead of globalisation of unequal chances. To accept the different and to treat it as equal is a major challenge of the new era. Search for meaning is the attempt to understand the 'other', by embedding / adopting / assimilating / translating the 'other' into one's own conceptual terms. Thus, 'Other' gradually loses its negativity or exoticism. Recognition is the ideal stage of multicultural communication that should lead to mutual understanding, consent and overcoming of the 'otherness'. This is never to happen totally and is thus the reason of the eternally ongoing process of communication between the 'self' and the 'other'.
-------------------------------------------------
2. Students' cultural self definition
----------------------------------------------
In the interviews the trainees were asked to think about what "Hellenism " might
mean today. The categories of this question are multiple the first starting from the
geographical locus and proceeding to various cultural trends often comparable with the analogue European ones. The locus of Greece was defined as refering :
a/ to the East b/to the West c/ to the international level.
More precisely 1 respondent considers Greece as a strictly western land,1 as a strictly oriental, 3 as oriental and western in the same time , 3 as "something between East and West " ,4 as oriental that tends to become western, 3 as a southern country, 1 as a meditterenean and 2 as nothing of all above. The two foreign students from Finland and Iran were not asked this question for obvious reasons. The preliminary conclusions are that the strategic historical and geopolitcal site of Greece operates to the students' conscience as a crossroads between East and West with some reference also to the south mediterranean level. In more detailed questions seeking to define the characterestics of orientalism ,all give interesting elements such as slow rhythms of life(5), lack of stress (1), lack of time consequence (1), lack of organisation (1) particular way of entertainment (5) particular human relations (4), family structure tending to the traditional patriarchical model ( 6) and particular religious sentiments
( Orthodoxy)( 2) special food (3) .Some of the students gave more than one excuses for the supposed eastern orientation of Greece.
Refering to the term West or Europe, students mean the developed countries of the
northwestern Europe. It seems that all students consider that Greeks are influenced by the western way of life,. 5 consider that Greece will get benefits from the EU.,3 believe the opposite , 1 that there is no difference between the Greek and the foreign lifestyle, and one student had the original view that the western lifestyle is a " counter loan" from the classical Hellenic Antiquity. All students agree that Greeks are xenomaniacs and especially 6 focus this xenomania on entertainment, 3 on English language knowledge, 7 on consuming goods and 4 on dressing..Furthermore 3 consider Greek tradition related to popular customs as vivid , 5 to music,3 to entertainment, 3 to work rhythms, 8 to the family, 4 to religion, 2 to the human values, 6 to values and 1 to the language. Concerning tourism ,4 students mention its impact on Greek culture. One is positive but three express negative opinions. But 7 students are sure that tourism is beneficial in financial terms. Regarding the international position of Greece only 3 express hopes that the country will be beneficiated from the globalisation effect, 6 are sure that there exist a planetarche ( in a negative sense) 3 are more optimist that this is a media myth, 1 claims that ONU is impotent in its role, 5 believe that unfortunately there is not a coalition of forces to enfront a global superpower such as USA , 5 claim that USA will never succeed into imposing its cultural model on a global scale but 2 are afraid that small countries such as Greece will not succeed into preserving its cultural tradition in the era of a possible globalisation. On the specific item of Olympic games of the year 2004 to be held in Athens 10 believe that the country will be beneficiated and 5 believe the opposite.
Relatively to how Greeks see themselves comparatively to other nations on the crucial topic of the meaning of ethnicity : 8 claim that Greeks are proud of being Greeks , 1 is afraid not to loose their national identity, 1 is sure that "there is not existing such a thing as national identiity", 5 claim Greeks not racists , 3 as less racists than other nations, 1 that Greeks are less sauvinist than others and 1 that Hellenism is synonym to Ecoumenism. On the question concerning their opinion on the Greeks abroad and their role to the Greek culture and development, 5 are sure that Greeks of diaspora belong to the Greek nation even if they loose their language after many generations ,1 believe that Greeks succeed for various reasons abroad more than in Greece, 2 that children of the Greek diaspora are very clever and successful students and 1 that these children forget their roots rather easily. On the specific question of how Greeks see themselves in comparison to the Orient , 1 believes that Greeks are too much oriental and therefore they have not the right to feel a superiority complex against the Orient, one said that Greeks and Turks have survived so many centuries together but "some others" are creating artificial conflicts between the two neighbor nations , one said that recently Greeks are less oriental as they used to be a generation ago and one student originate of Rhodes said that the small Turkish community of Rhodes is cohabitating with the Greek majority with no problems.
The scenery changes in the question relative to the returning Greeks ( Pontians) from former Soviet Union. They are estimated as coming from " no man's land " because they were forgotten for three generations and soviet authorities never mentioned their existence until the collapse of the soviet state. Therefore the opinions are ambivalent because for one theorising that these Pontians are welcome in Greece another express the opposite opinion. But most of the students conclude that the public opinion in Greece on these newcomers is mainly influenced by the fact that they are poor and homeless therefore they are not considered as "healthy parts of Greek society".
As regards how Greeks consider themselves relatively to the West, 1 said that Greeks
feel as salvators of the West because they stopped the Asiatic barbarism many times,
1 claimed that western culture is a prolongation of the ancient Greek miracle transmitted through Rennaisance, 1 noticed that when a nation expect to " become" European, that means that it is not yet , 3 mention a inferiority complex of Greeks visavis the Europeans, 1 considered Greek even as "cultural slaves" and servile to whatever sounds foreign ( western) , 1 accuses Greeks of speaking and writing English advertisements in latin alphabet even in their homeland to feel modernised and finally 1 student believes that Greeks will start their course to the progress because of the need to be competitive to the already progressed West.
Comparing the actual situation in Greece with foreign mentalities, 1 believes that Greeks have more problems with immigrant workers than other western states, 1 that Greeks are less consuming , another that are less organised and therefore more free and another that family traditions are stronger.
Regarding the national stereotypes to the foreigners , 3 consider Europeans as more respectful towards the citizens , 3 said that Europeans consider themselves as superior to Greeks , 1 that Germans have an inferiority complex , 1 that English and French are sauvinists, 1 that English and German feel first European than English or Germans, 1 that the Northern Europeans are " cold " ,1 noticed that many among tourists are marginal people coming to an open country such as Greece to express their material insticts and 1 that in the EU Greeks are searched as ....highly qualified scientists.
About the specific views relative to Albanians who consist the main immigrant population in Greece , almost all the students do not consider them as belonging to the West even if geographically Albania is situated to the west relatively to Greece. That proves that the notion WEST is rather a cultural and socio-economical concept and is not strictly related to its geographical locus.. 8 students consider that racism and 6 xenophobia have increased recently in Greece due exactly to the massive illegal entrance of Albanians since 1990. and the reasons pronounced are mostly related to the criminality of this specific ethnic group ( because other ethnic groups with strong presence in Greece such as Pakistani or Philipino, Africans or Poles never created any criminality at all in the last decade). 1 student blaimed the Greek state as encouraging the illegal immigration, 1 that the problem will be resolved if the state ameliorates the resources of immigrants by legalising them , 3 noticed that by indirect ways Albanians are taking labour places from the Greeks due to lower wages, 2 insisted that Greeks use as employers Albanians giving them lower wages with no insurance stamps and an important number of 7 students declared that the whole problem was created and exaggerated by the media. At least 6 declared by various means that Albanians are in the last analysis victims of their goverment, of false expectations and also that the poorer part of population have to migrate to Greece because this is their only way and they are rejected from Europe. This is the reason that they very seldom desire to integrate to Greek reality and their only goal is to earn fast money and leave. In general the views are contradictory but the explanations on Albanian criminality are rational.
In conclusion, the trainees recognised the sum of problems arising from the coexistence of multiple ethnic groups but seems to tolerate this cohabitation even for members of distinct ethnic groups and different religions.
3 Students' cognitive competence
-----------------------------------------------
. EDUCATIONAL TOPICS AND MULTICULTURALISM IN EDUCATION
About the term Multicultural Education (ME) its meaning was known only to the few students (3) who chose the relative lesson among the items taught in the pedagogical and pre-elementary school faculties of the University of Athens.. The rest of the 17 students had not any chance to select this lesson with the exception of three more undergraduates of pre--elementary education (2) and pedagogics(1) who could choose it in the next years of their studies. As pupils, these students had attended schools that had not minoritarian or immigrant pupils. Consequently they had not experience or knowledge to discuss items such as the role of the tutor of ME or how the language and the culture of the immigrants could be taught. For this reason the aim of students in this programme was not the aquirement of qualifications relative to the problem since most of them ignored its very existence , but their information for topics of education related to the general racist phenomena that increased in the Greek society as described mainly by the media. Also, a second important aim was to communicate with foreign students interested on the analogue topics and to exchange opinions and to understand better their motives as a reflexion of their cultures.
Relatively to the education of the "returning" from Greek diaspora , of national monorities, as well as the immigrant students , Greek state established the higly obscure law 2413/1996 that enables to the state and to private persons to establish schools on the basis of educational, social and cultural particularities of their students. These special schools will not be dependent to the Pedagogical Institute a tool of general implementation of national educational policy, but to the specialised EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HOMOGENES (Greeks abroad) AND M.E. This specialised Institute will be also rensposible for the education of Greek communities abroad giving an end in reality to the Greek language schools ( i.e.in Germany) while encouraging the opening of mixted schools abroad and in Greece under the scope to avoid the " ghetto-ism".
Consequently, it was judged that the notion of M.E. had to be asked in the second round of interviews to the students because it is estimated that they learned during the four months of the OE programme all the elements required to evaluate its necessity.We propose that this crucial topic can be investigated by two indirect questions that do not concern formally M.E. but rather essentially :
1/ What qualities are required by a future citizen of the OE
2/ What are the qualities of a common tutor.
If the ordinary or the average (common) tutor is precised as a non racist element in the everyday educational process, then this same tutor has all the required qualifications to teach in a multicultural audience where some of the students have special problems of understanding or behaving. If the citizen of the EU is sensibilised towards the idea of living in a multicultural society of equal duties and rights for all, then this citizen has all the qualifications required to be a non racist element. In the idealised image of everybody asked, both roles are desribed as such but reality is not always the same.
Since the experiences of the twenty students-teachers of our OE programme were not enough to evaluate the attitudes of Greek student audiences visavis various groups of foreigners or " returners" ( due to the low number of foreign students attending Greek universities ) their opinions were rather imaginative and theoretical. They supposed that racism in the class can be attributed to the " difference" of the low profile students who cannot be competitive to the average student and for this reason are socially excluded and marginalised. However, all hopes are turned to the tutor who has all the possibilities to explain to equalise and to resolve problems of understanding as well as conflicts because of verbal or even physical insults. By considering the future citizen of OE as the par-excellence moral individual who will overpass all racial and cultural discrimanation, one is identified with this ideal and this fact consists the optimal aspect of our problem..
Two more questions were put in the first round related to the cultural identity as connected with the educational process and to the role of the technological information to the formation of a good communication and the increase of educational skills. Here the idealisations are also evident since 12 students respond that with the proper educational programs , foreign influences could be counterbalanced with the Greek traditional ways in order to avoid the loss of Greek identity. However, nobody mentioned that cultural elements borrowed by the foreigners ( migrants or minoritarian) could help to enrich this national identity. As to the second question students are optimist on the positive aspects of modern technology and only one was sceptical about the negative aspects of social isolation and alienation by the
intense use of internet and personal computer. However, 5 students underlined that information could be transformed to creative knowledge only if personal interests pre exist. Communication is fruitful only if two individuals share mutual interests and are sensibilised towards the same direction. This last fact was partly proved through the OE programme exchange of messages among the 120 students of the six participant countries..
Finally, as it is revealed by the preliminary findings, lack of knowledge is a rather good prerequisite for " phobia of the stranger " ( xenophobia in Greek) extended easily to racist feelings mostly against the suspected "others" that are considered more guilty when poor and uneducated. In the century of technological expertise and rational thought, oral popular culture is not considered as a real expression of culture and orality of expression is often confused with illetracy and low educational profile. Therefore, the concept of ME must not be overused as the " golden pill" leading to the magical solution of integration of different cultures, because praxis reveals many important resistances due mainly to the differences in the socio-economical level. Future will show if humanity will be less discriminative and more tolerant to the right of the "other" to be "different" and proud of this very "difference". It is not by chance that rich societies of the West that invented a particular way of development in the history of hunan kind and that exorcised all annoying differences as exotic and pittoresque folklore for touristical use, are the very same societies that invented the term of integration of these same differences in the name of progress.
F I N A L C O N C L U S I O N S
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1/ Interests are not easy to be cultivated. Everyone has to find his/her own. The role of education is very crucial on this aim but also this is a reason of a permanent education crisis since the needs are never satisfied by the offers.
2/ There are not rich and poor cultures, there are just rich and poor economies.
3/ Modernity must mean innovation and not mimesis of a " successful model"
coming from a " foreign successful cultures"
4/ School taught History is usually ethnocentric for obvious ideological reasons.
5/ To trust the Other means to know him/her in practical and nont theoretical ways.
6/ Pluralism is not a panakea in modern representative democraties
7/ Self confidence of students is increasing after a communication festival such as the OE programme because communication is the important qualitative and not only the
quantity of aquired information.
8/ The qualificative elaboration of information gives to a spherical knowledge
but the best mean to succeed to this aim , is the insertion of the so called " social knowledge" .Liberation is realised only through this type of knowledge.
9/Mass Media is not a valable source of information due to its commercial aims and spectacular exaggerations.. Fragmentation of meanings and falsification of information
are greatly responsible for mass alienation of spectators and non judged stereotypes formation. The way to various forms of fanatisms is open by these means. The style
of the slogan typed reasoning is responsible for the so call Disneylisation of audiences.
Psychology teaches that oversimplification of reasonings results to false conclusions.
10/ Special conditions of every country are responsible for analogous mentalities and attitudes of its citizens. Many difficulties of understanding and collaborating are due to this crucial issue.
11/ Rhyrthms of communication are difficult to be syncronised , especially through modern technological media such as CMC ( computer mediated communication)
12/ Communication and knowledge of the Other are the best ways of overpassing
individualism and the fear of the unknown ( main source of xenophobia).
13/ To learn how to trust the Other, is a major lesson resulting from a successful
exchange of messages with the Other.
14/ Conventional education is not encouraging spherical perception of things (panopticon) but rather narrow minded ideas of the reality. Also creative skills of students are not encouraged because of indifference or inadequacy of teachers or
lack of relative planification in the curricula.
15/ Hidden curriculum is always operative but very seldom evaluated in the school class. Its impact ( positive or negative) is sometimes more important than the impact of regular curricula. Also, the role of cultural capital as provided by family is rarely evaluated by educators.
16/ The dichotomy of tradition/modernity is less dramatic to the youth than to the older generations. Youth can combine traditional forms and meanings with modern ones because they believe and trust innovations . Unfortunely most of these innovations are commerce and profit oriented as designed by their creators.
Youth are close to the idea of "discovering " their tradition but they are not encouraged to this aim in the urbanised societies that have been separated from popular culture for the 30-40 years at least.
17/ Racism is nothing more than a special form of human inequality expressed in the
ideological and also symbolic level.
18/ Tolerance is a conquest of " developed" societies but its price is usually absolute indiffernce for what the Others are doing as well as a rationally typed coolness.
19/ Cultural values include an ethical aspect that has not to be neglected by the educators and the education planifiers. The understanding of the cultural values of the Other, enables the self to realise his/her own identity as well as his/her cultural values better.( through the psychological process of comparison, analogy and imagery)
20/ Integration instead of assimilation process seems to be the optimal model for
societies receiving masses of foreigners intending to coexist with them in their " vital space". Tolerance followed by neglect is not the only way of reaction. The only model that can survive for hosts and foreigners is the cosmopolitan one such as practiced in older times in some historical sites ( e.g. Alexandria ) after which the mentality to be a "citizen of the world " diminishes all real and symbolic stereotypes , prejudices and
inequalities.
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WHERE THE O.E. PROGRAMME SUCCEEDED AND WHERE IT FAILED.
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1/ There was not a common model of asking questions in the interviews and consequently to organise new questions in every country after the experiences
of another partner country.( this problem is due mainly to the poor communication among the 6 tutors as it can be seen in the tutors' list).
2/ Important differences in education systems of every country created difficulties
in understanding of needs and requirements among the tutors and researchers of the
O.E. programme.
3/ Important differences in the age of most students ( most of English trainees were
older than the average age)
4/ Lack of trust among the communicating students and not transparent motivation
in all cases.
5/ Technical problems in CMC
6/ Difficulties of comparison and analogies in every national case due to the different conditions( e.g. different synthesis and numbers of OE students).
7/ Impersonal questionnaires especially in the second section of confidence questions.
resulting to accidental and not thoroughful answers.
8/ Non focalised interests of students ue to different cultural backgrounds.
9/ Language problems in some cases ( British exempted)
10/ Arrognance and superiority syndromes of some students ( e.g. Israeli report on O.E. programme see p.2 in the outline of the analysis of the second round of interviews :" It became apparent that the Israelis feel confident about themselves
and feel they can be a role model to other nations, but at the same time they feel a need to prove themselves constantly ".
------------------------------positive------------------
1/ Students divided in 5 groups learned how to cooperate for a common aim and how to synchronize their rhythms in order to create a final report. Also, they learned how
to organise their interests in a way that might be useful for other foreign homologues
waiting for some messages that could potentially raise the degree of communication and exchange of ideas concerning a common goal ( the O.E. programme) even if this
final goal was not perfectly successful at the end.
2/ Maturation process of the trainees , due to the better understanding of the unknown Others giving to a better understanding of the self and its working aims as future teachers. Through the psychological process of projection, trainees were introduced to the others' ( pupils') position and then they discovered themselves sensibilised to the noble aim of being useful to them. By these means they managed to overpass their fear concerning the impossibility of teaching in a multicultural class. The example of other teachers ( in the schools visited) accomplishing positive results was encouraging for the trainees.
3/ Trainees learned how to evaluate the racism and xenophobia problems in situ i.e. in the school class, and how to invent practical ways of overpassing problems such as
class conflicts and class organisation. After noticing some examples of good adaptation
and integration of immigrant pupils in the class, they became more optimist than before about the future of multicultural education and its results to the aim of helping different cultural backgrounds to coexist and to communicate with no prejudices and stereotypes.
4/ Sometimes, it happens that the awareness on difficulties or deficiencies encourages
trainees and students to organise their ways of reaction or creation of new innovative
styles of teaching and help of communication in a multicultural class. This social knowledge of the practical problems enabled our trainees in many cases to imagine
their potential interference in similar cases of the future improvising when there would
not be any other possibility of using tested methods.
5/ Last but not least was the communication between the trainees and the tutor during the visits in the schools and during the lectures and the interviews. Trainees learned how to evaluate cultural diversity as a living reality by practical means and also how to organise their theoretical weapons of thought. This was attested by the progress of
multiple exchanges of opinions among them and the tutor. Finally, tutor and researcher
felt that they were helped to approach in a better practical way some issues of multiculturalism that were faced only theoretically.
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PROPOSALS
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Ι/ National education
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1/ School curricula must be urgently modified if we want an amelioration of the general social mentality towards the problem of multiculturalism in education.
The topics in priority are :
a/ Religious lesson . This is taught during 10 years totally from the age of 8 to 18.
Here, the need is for teaching of tolerance towards the diverse religious systems of
other cultures. Comparative lessons of history of religion as a total human condition
need to be introduced in the superior classes when the critical level of students can
evaluate the importance ( and the interest ) of being different in religious terms. The
study of the meaning of the holy is an ethical philosophy that can be combined with
lesson of humanities in the last class.
b/ History and Geography have to be revised in the direction of being minimal in ethnocentric orientation. Especially History is passing a great amount of hidden curriculum through various examples of underlying of the national sentiment.( national days, parades, morning flug raise etc).
c/ Humanities, literature and foreign languages have to be reoriented towards more
concrete examples of foreign cultures. So far the whole content of these philological lessons was oriented towards the learning of the structure of language ( literature in the service of the style) neglecting the important ideas of the authors. Even in foreign
languages, the focus has been rarely oriented towards the approach of the cultural
aspect in the school curricula.
d/ Social sciences have to be enriched by more intense courses of sociology and
civil education. Both these lessons have been annulated after the recent reform of 1999
from the last class and were replaced by technocrat lessons of informatics and economics. Technology might be useful for our lives in the next millennium but the way it is taught in the secondary education is not ideal because of the strictly technocratic and professional model these lessons are promoting.
e/ Artistic lessons such as music and peinture but also History of Art need to be introduced urgently in the secondary education for enabling young pupils to a better
aproach of foreign cultural achievements.
f/ The lesson of professional orientation is not satisfactory because it is planified to give some information on future professions but it never takes under consideration the
potential capabilities of young students. It is never noticed during these courses that
to be a good professional in the new era one has to love his occupation and not just
to work for money or power. Amateurship (lover in Latin) is considered as a defect
by modern technocratic views and the trend is to prepare new technocrats and economists to have a quantitative relation to this planet. Unfortunately this type of citizen is not the one who will manifest a desire for understanding the cultural difference and to approach the otherness. Technocrats are simply trying to make
life easy and confortable by the technical innovations but they never recognise their role into turning humanity to individualism and loneliness occuring from the loss of the human contact. If globalisation is their latest invention for fooling masses promising an
false equality, humanities can respond only by promoting the old spirit of cosmopolitanism or World citizenship.
2/ There must be a new conception concerning the social role of the school aiming not only to the aquirement of knowledge but also to the better communication and socialisation of students. Visits in museums, galleries, selected theaters and other cultural sites must be systematic as it happens in France ( Wednesdays are dedicated to these visits ) because a better cultural experience in general is helping the approach of different cultures. Also, video and internet as modern technological ways of learning
may increase students interests on multicultural issues
ΙΙ Μulticultural education
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The topic of M.E. must be introduced to all university departments preparing future teachers and professors of the pre school, primary and secondary education. But this
lesson must be absolutely combined with visits to multicultural classes otherwise it will
fail for the same reasons as many theoretical courses of general education. For the time
being this course is optional in preschool and primary teachers departments and most
of the students of the secondary teacher departments never heard of it !!
Specialisations of multiculturalism can be created now in the university departments
aiming to a better preparation of future educators to face the new realities. However,
specialisation has no sense if is not taught under the scope of a shherical approach,
otherwise it will turn to a new technocracy. Humanities are crucial for teaching young
students how to combine values with knowledge and to respect both scoping to a common goal : that of a better communication between the interesting different peoples. Human sciences such as Social Anthropology and Political Science,
have to reorganise their aims focusing to a better understanding of the otherness , otherwise these disciplines will take a strictly academic character.
Societal and political organisations (national and international) such as the High Comission for Refugees , Amnesty international, Unesco, Unicef , doctors with no frontiers, ecological organisations such as Greenpeace and WWF are very important to interfere in order to sensibilise common opinion not only through the mass media but organising their own ways of promotion of their work and aims towards the direction of multicultural understanding. To give an example, the excellent mensual journal Courrier of Unesco that is translated now in Greek must be propagated in the schools and universities. Especially speaking about racism there are at least three non
goverrmental organisations in Greece aiming to the better understanding of minorities,
immigrant workers and gypsies. All these organisations are private and giving chances to all citizens to participate in the frame of the so called " society of citizens" or "civil
society" that can undertake important roles in the new millennium.
In conclusion, trainess have been mostly sensibilised than educated during the 4 months of O.E. programme and the outcome of this sensibilisation process is that
they evaluated multiculturalism in classrooms in an analogous way of their own
experience e.g. they judged that to understand better the problems of the different
strangers, they have to take their social position and undertake their role in the margins of the dominant culture and society. This moral attitude signifies an engagement
aiming to the help for overpassing inequalities because DIFFERENCES ARE NOT A
REASON FOR INEQUALITIES.
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